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NOTE-BOOK 

KEPT BY 

CAPT. ROBERT KEAYNE, 

frn (tfarlg pettier of Boston. 

REMARKS 

SIADE BEFORE 

THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

March 14, 1889. 

BY 

SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D. 



NOTE-BOOK 



CAPT. ROBERT KEAYNE, 

$tn <£arls pettier of Boston. 

REMARKS 

MADE BEFORE 

THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
March 14, 1889. 



BY 



SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D. 

u 



CAMBRIDGE: 

JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

Sanfbersitg Press. 

1889. 



CAPT. ROBERT KEAYNE'S NOTE-BOOK. 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, held in Boston, Thursday, March 14, 1889, 
Dr. Samuel A. Green made the following remarks: 

At the last meeting of the Society a serial number of the 
Proceedings was placed on the table, which contained an 
account of the Trial of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, communicated 
by our Corresponding Member, Professor Franklin B. Dexter, 
of Yale University. The report of the trial was found among 
the papers of President Ezra Stiles, and had been " copied by 
him while a pastor in Newport, in 1771, from an original man- 
uscript not now traceable." It would be of considerable 
interest now to know the whereabouts of the missing manu- 
script, as it has some historical value. It may, however, yet 
turn up, when and where it is least expected. Akin to the 
subject I will say that another volume apparently belonging 
to the same set was once in the possession of our late associ- 
ate, Dr. Thomas H. Webb, and exhibited by him at a meeting 
of this Society. In the Proceedings (VII. 417) for August, 
1864, it is recorded : — 

Dr. "Webb read extracts from a manuscript volume in the handwrit- 
ing of Robert Keayne of Boston, consisting of notes of sermons 
preached by John Cotton, and of ecclesiastical proceedings of the First 



Church. Dr. Webb stated that the volume corresponded in appear- 
ance and character with another manuscript-book of Keayne, now in 
the archives of this Society. 

According to the manuscript records of the August meeting, 
which are somewhat fuller than appear in the printed Pro- 
ceedings, the owner of the volume, whose name is not given, 
wished to sell it, and with that end in view the book was 
exhibited. On the fly-leaf was written : " Robert Keyne of 
Bost: New England his Booke, 1643." In point of time, it 
follows immediately, or nearly so, the volume referred to as 
belonging to the Society, which is evidently a continuation of 
the one used by President Stiles. In fact, the opening para- 
graph of the copy in this Library mentions " another Booke," 
which is without doubt the missing volume quoted by Stiles. 
Besides the abstracts of sermons, it contains a report of two 
curious cases of ecclesiastical discipline, — one against Ser- 
geant Richard Wait, and the other against Mrs. Ann Hibbens, 
— in which nearly all the church members express themselves 
in regard to the points in controversy. With the change of a 
few words, Stiles's description of the manuscript would answer 
nearly as well for the copy now in the Library. It is a quarto 
volume of 584 closely written pages, bound in leather, and 
consists of an expansion of notes, taken probably from the 
mouth of the preacher. The first entry is dated November 
23, 1639, and the last one, May 22, 1642 ; and on the verso of 
the fly-leaf is written " Robert Keayne of Boston in New 
England his Book 1639. Price 6 s ." If the manuscript used 
by Stiles was once, as he says, " among a Family Collection 
of Books & Manuscripts of the Rev. M r Wilson, first Pastor of 
Boston," it is highly probable that the Societ} r, s copy was also 
at one time in the minister's library. It may be noted here 
that Keayne and Wilson married sisters. The manuscript was 
in the possession of the Society before October, 1809, though 
it is not now known either when or by whom it was given. 
On a fly-leaf at the end of the volume is written: "Mihi 
missus est Junii die undecimo 1747 J S. ex cognato S T. 



Warrensii." Presumably the initials S. T. stand for Solomon 
Townsend, and the date rather confirms the statement made 
by President Stiles that Mr. Wilson's library was scattered 
near the middle of the last century. The book begins : — 

Mr Cotton, ou^ Teacher, his. Sermons, or. Expositions, vpon the 
Bookes. of the New Testament vpon. the Lordes dayes in the ffore- 
noone att Boston, in N. England, begininge at the 27 th chapter, of 
Mathue haueinge gone ouer the rest of this. Euayngelist. allready : 
in another Booke. 

Perhaps eighty pages of the manuscript, though they are 
not consecutive ones in either instance, are given up to the 
trials of Sergeant Richard Wait and Mrs. Ann Hibbens. The 
first entry in Sergeant Wait's case comes immediately after the 
expository lecture of April 20, 1640, and is as follows : — 

Elder Oliuer calls out Richard Waight. y* had bin longe. excomui- 
cated. to see if he could giue satisfaction to the church for his reeturinge 
agayne. as. he desiers. he is now ready, to make confession, of such 
thinges. as are past & if you wilbe willinge to hear him. . . . 

The charge against Wait at this time is not given totidem 
verbis, but may be inferred from what Mr. Cotton says at a 
continuation of the hearing, which is recorded just after the 
" exposition" of July 20, 1640, as follows : — 

Brothe 1 Waight. you know, how fa r the church, hath proseded w th 
you. about you r wicked confederacy w th Leicesto r , vv ch when some of the 
Bretheren delt w th you about, you did vtterly deny, y* you neuer. had 
any. familliaretie w th him, nor did neuer drinke w th him. but ouer at 
ou r Brother Turners & yet since it is playnly proued. & yofselfe. haue 
confessed since, that you haue had often meetings & drinkinges. 
w th him. 

As a result of the long hearing Wait was restored to his 
former position in the church. 

Mrs. Hibbens's case is first considered immediately after 
the sermon of September 13, 1640, and heard at two later 
meetings, though the final decision was not reached until the 



succeeding February. Her transgression is learned, inferen- 
tially, from what " Brother Dauis " testifies. He says : — 

The offence was. betweene M rs Hibbens & my selfe. & some others 
that w ch I haue to lay to her charge was an vntrutli or a lye or 2. 
that she tould, as alsoe that she accused me of a combination ; and 
sayd. that the Timbers, of the Roome would crye for Judgment agaynst 
me, and yet she did not deale w th me, accordinge to the Rule of 
the word. 

The next hearing took place on September 20, 1640, when 
Mrs. Hibbens and her husband each had something to say 
before the brethren. Both of these meetings were held on a 
Sunday, but the third and last hearing was on a Monday. 
It is recorded : — 

therfor this meetinge was not one the Lords day. but apoynted 
one purpose to be. one a second day. of the weeke. beiuge. the first day. 
of the 12th month. 1640. that strangers might come. 

At the conclusion of the trial on February 1, 1640-41, Mr. 
Cotton, the minister, addressed Mrs. Hibbens, in a public 
admonition ending with /these words: — 

I doe. from this time forward, pronounce you. an. excomuicatd 
pson. from god. & his people. 

After the remarks of the pastor the following is given : — 

Elde r Leueret Then Mrs Hibbens, you are. to dept the Congrega- 
tion ; as one depriued. worthely. of all the holy thinges of god. 

Pastor. Let vs now seeke. to god by praye' & call vpo. him. for a 
blessinge. vpon this Ordinance. 

M' Hibbens [the husband] I desier leaue. to speake. one word 
befo r the Congregation be dismissed. 

Pastor. Speake on. 

1VP. Hibbens It is my humble & arnest request to the Congrega- 
tion, first to. our. Reuerend. Elders, & then to euery Brother and Sister 
in the Congregation, that both in publike & priuat thay wo ld remember 
my afflicted condition, befor the Lord, & earnestly pray to god. that this 
Ordinance of his may be sanctified to my wife, for the good of her 
soule. & for the returninge of her. backe agayne. first to hir selfe. & 
then vnto you. & y' is all I haue to say. 



The excommunication of poor Mrs. Hibbens was among the 
least of her troubles, for fifteen years later, — on June 19, 1656, 
— she was hung as a witch. Even during the period of her 
ecclesiastical trial she was considered by some persons as 
unsettled in her mind ; and the public admonition by the 
church must have had an irritating effect on her excited 
imagination. Both her shattered reason and her reputation 
for heresy tended to make this unfortunate woman a victim 
to the witchcraft delusion. Mrs. Hibbens was a- sister of 
Governor Richard Bellingham, who suffered at times from 
an aberration of intellect ; and perhaps there was some in- 
herited taint of insanity, which would explain in part her 
peculiarities. 



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